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Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 14:10:39 -0600
To: "Stanislav Malyshev" <stas@zend.com>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
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References: <alpine.DEB.0.98.0712042315260.20300@kossu.ez.no>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RFC: Dropping Namespace
From: nlgordon@gmail.com ("Nate Gordon")

On Dec 5, 2007 12:04 PM, Stanislav Malyshev <stas@zend.com> wrote:
> > collision problems that class naming and function naming have. Only
>
> Only if you insist on *not* using the namespaces to solve collision
> problems. For the 1001th time - you can not expect to put all names into
> global space and have the language by some magic to sort it out and go
> both ways. One name can mean only one thing, namespaces or not.
> Namespaces just allow you more convenient rules for defining what name
> means what thing.

I would like to second this notion.  There are those who would say
that the global namespace is for the use of PHP itself.  I would
disagree heartily, PHP as a language is built to serve the developer
who is using it.  They should decide what exists in the global
namespace.

When I write a library I will often create functions/classes/variables
that have no business being used outside my library.  So I don't see
the need to make the names longer just so I don't collide with someone
else's internal variables/classes/functions.

This paves the way for doing much more advanced things with packages
and run-time loading of code (which I know some people will think
isn't good).

Of all the namespace talk I've heard, the only part I disagree with is:

use Foo::Bar as OtherBar;

This seems like a maintainability nightmare to me as well as having
well having some possible BC issues long-term.  If you don't like
someone's class name that much that you have to alias it then just
make your own wrapper class:

class OtherBar extends Foo::Bar {}

Its not like it is that many more characters to write.

So if we have to wait until PHP 6 to get this right, then so be it.  I
just see this as being critical to the future of enterprise/large
scale PHP and don't want to see it die.


-- 
-Nathan Gordon

If the database server goes down and there is no code to hear it, does
it really go down?
<esc>:wq<CR>